What the Spanish Flu Shows us About Journalism
- Feb 9, 2014
- 2 min read
The Spanish flu broke out just after the Great War came to a close and killed between 50 to a 100 million people. It was the most deadly disease in the history of humanity. I always assumed the flu came from Spain and broke out from the fighting there, but the actual reason was from a misconception. Spain was the only country that was freely allowed to report the disease in newspapers and so to the world it seemed that Spain was devastated more by the disease than other countries—when in fact it was not. It’s interesting how censorship has shaped history and has given something a false name.
It led me to wonder what else has been misconstrued by censorship. As Winston Churchill said, history is written by the victors. But how would we see history—and the world void of any PR spin? I have a feeling if nobody tried to influence us that the truth would look very differently.
Even in today’s world you would think with modern technology that governments and large companies wouldn’t be able to pull the wool over our eyes like they did with the public in 1918—yet clearly they have. Governments everywhere are encroaching on our civil liberties and if it wasn’t for whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden we would be as clueless as much as people back then. How is that possible? I thought we were supposed to get more civilized and advanced as a species, but it seems the age-old human battle for power and knowledge still rages, cloaking reality and the truth.
For starters large organizations are better funded and just generally better with technology than the average person. WikiLeaks has done an admirable job of being the voice of the people but if it is to continue its effectiveness then it needs to grow as an organization and for that it needs to be more than Julian Assange at the keyboard. In effect, we all need to band together to combat governments and large organizations from their PR spin.
News organizations are evolving but much too slowly to be watchdogs of government. Organizations have shut off the proverbial information tap far too efficiently. And new models of journalism that spring up, such as The Huffington Post model, won’t work in the long run as upholders of great journalism. No online news website haven’t gotten it right yet.
Our greatest hope –as much as it pains me to express it – is Jeff Bazos who just bought the Washington Post. He is not afraid to experiment and try new ways of providing news while regaining profitability that news organizations lost with the rise of Google. We are in an age of rapid change and an age of new rules that are constantly shifting. News organizations can’t be afraid to go out on limbs in order to keep fighting the good fight. We need a true entrepreneur to fix journalism.
How do you think journalism should be fixed? Can journalists ever win against governments and large corporations? I would love to hear your thoughts!
by Joel Mark Harris
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